ABSTRACT
Bion’s attention to the separate worlds of experience of babies and their mothers, and of analysands and their analysts stemmed, at least in part, from his experience as a tank battalion officer during the First World War. Impressed by the high morale of soldiers working together in groups,1 he sought to use this experience in developing group methods of officer selection during the Second World War,2 and group methods of treating its hospitalized psychiatric casualties.3 This doubtless contributed to his running therapy groups at London’s Tavistock Clinic after the war was over.
